Time —Today at 7:00pm - September 2 at 9:00am
Location — Wisconsin State Capitol...

Camp free-style under the stars, no tents allowed.
ATTENTION: organizer David Boetcher's group, _We Are Wisconsin_, has canceled its permit with the city as of 5 pm Friday June 17. If you still want to VIGIL near the Capitol it must be WITHOUT a tent, AND self-sufficient!

Yesterday a little after 5 p.m., we walked and drove around the square. There was little sign of any protest activity:

I don't see how the city can accept free-form sleeping on the street, with no group taking responsibility. Homeless and transient people are not allowed to sleep on the street, so I don't see how special immunity from the laws can be given to other sleepers based on their political opinions.

So they effectively cancelled what was supposed to be a summer-long protest? Gee, I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that the "protesters" were largely well-off public employees from dual income families? Beach homes, lake cabins, tennis camps, soccer, etc. take up a lot of time. Impersonating the oppressed just isn't as much fun, even if you're an attention hog.

"I was out of town when the tents were taken down Friday and don't know what happend to our tent. Does anyone know if there was an organized clean-up of the tents that were there?"

" Friday afternoon, Information station stated anything left behind would go to the Salvation Army as per: "Information Station sez: " If you or anyone you know has a tent or other belongings there, please come and get them ASAP. Anything that is not claimed will go to the Salvation Army in the next couple of days."

Gee, I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that the "protesters" were largely well-off public employees from dual income families? Beach homes, lake cabins, tennis camps, soccer, etc. take up a lot of time. Impersonating the oppressed just isn't as much fun, even if you're an attention hog.

I think you're spot-on. But you're talking about the actual people with the claimed grievances. Certainly any protest at the capitol will attract the sort of professional demonstrators that flock to Madison at the first indication of faltering leftism. So the public employees didn't really need to be there for their protest to carry on. There would always be placeholders in the form of life-long radicals and useful idiot students.

Anyone feel like going down there, sitting on the steps and chowing down on a big juicy burger? Or maybe bringing a few pizzas and passing out slices? Hot fudge sundaes for dessert? All in the interest of keeping the hunger-striker from getting lonely, of course.

Is there any stupider form of protest than the hunger-strike? Even setting aside the fact that most strikes wind up having so many loopholes that the participants are more satisfied than the average weight-watchers participant, why on earth should I care if a psychologically healthy (debatable, but still), physcially capable adult *chooses* not to eat?

I don't want anyone stupid enough to think that a hunger-strike will is a good way to get what they want to ever teach any child anything.

Well, when they've been allowed to take over the capitol building, sleep there for days on end, ride naked through the streets of downtown, sleep in tents in front of businesses on the sidewalks, threaten the governor, his family and the Republican congressmen...why wouldn't they be allowed to sleep without tents at the capitol? It's just par for the course.

Wish I knew what Salvation Army the tents went to. I could use a new Mountain Hardware or other tent brand marketed towards geardos. If those tents were simply there for props, then there would be no hippie stink to wash out.

Hoovervilles existed because people had no where else. They were gritty, desperate places full of people seeking means to live. Walkerville was a fantasy of people with full bellies but weak minds seeking reason to live. Apparently this was not a good reason for them after all.

They finally read the writing on the wall - the stuff that wasn't theirs, anyway.

Ann Althouse said...

I don't see how the city can accept free-form sleeping on the street, with no group taking responsibility.

This is a job for ANN and New Meadia Meade.

I'm serious here. You don't want the city to allow this or you'll be tripping over them everywhere.

Lincolntf said...

Anyone feel like going down there, sitting on the steps and chowing down on a big juicy burger? Or maybe bringing a few pizzas and passing out slices? Hot fudge sundaes for dessert? All in the interest of keeping the hunger-striker from getting lonely, of course.

We are Wisconsin? Got a call 6/7 @ 7PM from them. Strangely enough caller ID sez AFSCME, and # 202-350-5849. Guy asked if I was going to vote for Fred Clark for senate. Told him I thought there was a primary-he didn't know. Asked about where he was calling from-he said "I just work here".

How does going on a very much-needed diet(image blowup) constitute some form of protest? My God the hippies have gotten lazier and lazier throughout the years. At least Barack Obama's terrorist friend Bill Ayers got up off his ass and bombed some Americans. The left is truly too fat to even bother now. (Image credit: Ann Althouse).

"We Are Wisconsin" is a Democrat Party front group designed to fraudulently trick people into donating money to them. Notice the HUGE RED DONATE BUTTON on the top of their web page.

They trick people who don't realizing they are in fact donating their money to some of the richest union fat-cats on the planet. It's a complete hoax and a fraud designed to separate suckers from their dollars. Their "About Us" page does not reveal that the unions are in fact behind this fraudulent front group.

"We Are Wisconsin" is nothing more than the Association of State County and Municipal Employees union agitating for more unsustainable raises, fat unsustainable 7-figure pensions and free health care for life on the taxpayer dime. At the same time that Wisconsin families are having their homes taken from them in foreclosure at record rates and at a time when 17% of the people of Wisconsin can't find a full-time job.

Ann if you truly "don't see" how this is fair application of the law (i.e., homeless vs. union-connected political protesters) you don't understand the mindset of Wisconsin politics as well as you think you do.

No, don't ignore it. Answer that call and start asking a lot of questions. Record the call.

They're running a fraudulent front group designed to hoax people out of their money. We need evidence. Start tape recording these calls.

If you have evidence of Democrat Party front groups fraudulently collecting donations from people without properly identifying themselves, let me know in the comments here. I'll get it to the proper authorities to investigate these frauds.

Is he an ordinary citizen? By that I mean is he a government official? Has he ever been a government official?

It's important to measure these people for what they really are. If they're just government officials or former government officials who are agitating for raises, that's significantly different than if they were just ordinary taxpaying citizens (non government officials).